X-Bomber the Game

Status: Nearly ready, needs further testing

• Dai-X Weapons split into primary and secondary categories, giving you more control over what to fire and when:
  - Primary: Pulse guns, Lasers, Special (Fire: Z, Select: Shift)
  - Secondary: Mega missiles, X-Tracer, Micro missiles (Fire: X, Select: Ctrl)
• Heads-up-display expanded correspondingly
• Dai-X secondary weapons; esp. X-Tracer, improved
• Heat haze effect and linear shadows improved for Mission 10.
• In-game Dialogue 2 - Cleverer crew with more helpful things to say
• Power transfer logic improved
• Dai-X Fighter shields improved
• X-Bomber blocking shield added - (Press [C] to activate).
• Asteroid spawn logic improved - increases randomisation of asteroid fields
• Energy swarm (in Missions 7 and 10) improved - makes both levels fairer
• Muzzle flashes for Dai-X pulse gun improved, CIWS-fire alpha-blend randomised, Rotator SpreadGun and Dai-X Fighter special weapon logic simplified
• EDF Astrofighter firing-points updated
• Object-selection glitch on Hive Runner laser torpedo launcher fixed
• Players' guided missile / homing laser logic updated

Clickteam have released a new version of their development software to replace Multimedia Fusion 2, which has served me very well over the last 7 years (after a shaky start).

I thought it best to give them a few months to iron out any bugs in Clickteam Fusion 2.5 first but I ordered it the other week and am planning on building the next version of X-Bomber using it, depending on how much conversion work is required.

My only hesitation in installing CF 2.5 because I couldn't say whether it will overwrite my existing MMF 2.
I could always install it on my test machine first and see how things go with it.

We are now looking at an August release for Evolution Toys' Dai-X. - More info

Work on X-Bomber has recently been delayed owing to all sorts of issues with the house plus elevated commitments at work.
We've sprung a leak in the cloakroom, requiring us to shut down the mains water supply as we can't put a bucket underneath. We've had to connect our TP-Link router to the test socket after finding an apparent fault with the house's phone system wiring.
I'll see if it's possible to release v0.83e by next weekend.

Current version

• Overlay 2 - improves lightning effect and provides 'Night mode' feature
  - Night mode activates 25% of the time on planetary missions.
• High score screen improved and simplified - Uploading high score names with spaces now supported, Mouse selection for uploading high scores
• Recovered PPA's Mission 07 dialogue from earlier versions, Fixed Legtrax afterburner, Added hotkey access [1-7] to menu

X-Bomber v0.83c solves the problem with uploading high scores to the website.
However, I haven't forgotten about trying to get previous versions to upload to our new server.
Krystal Hosting aren't making it that easy and suggested that I call them but, since I'm at work Mon-Fri this week and next, that'll have to wait.

If you have a score that you want to upload in the mean-time, update to v0.83c. 0.83c can then open the high-scores file from your \Windows folder and upload your score.

I plan on re-working existing Missions to make greater use of the carriers' ability to launch their fighters on-screen.

The game scales the Strikers down - to scale with the Hive Runner - when they're docked. and darkened it by 25% when it's attached to the carrier.
The Strikers will gradually brighten and expand to 100% once launched.
I figure, I'll end up doing just the same to the other fighters

Destroyer Carrier Variant

I noticed from my Japanese DVDs that the carriers in Episode 4 of Star Fleet differ a lot from the normal ones. This variant appears in Mission 02 of the game and is called the 'Destroyer' variant in the game's data.
The Destroyer has a very powerful, red lightning gun mounted on its head as well as apparently having the normal laser torpedo launcher underneath (which it isn't shown to fire). The lightning gun causes X-Bomber to use its never-again-seen blocking shield. Unlike other carriers, these do not carry any fighters. They can't due to the extra antennas/fins mounted on their sides.
Perhaps, the antennas act as heat-sinks for the main gun.

I've tweaked the graphics for the destroyed carrier accordingly and I'll be updating the carrier sprites based on Brad's 3D models of the carrier.

Introduction

I've recreated Brad Smith's Hive Runner ship for the game as accurately as I can, based on the model that Brad created back in 2004.
It is an extension to the existing dynamic Fighter/Carrier system.
I tried to contact Brad to find out more info about the ship but I had no luck.
The Hive Runner is a larger version of the enemy Astrofighter Carrier, carrying 8 Strikers, which are, in turn, larger versions of the enemy Astrofighters.
Brad's notes state that the Hive Runner and Striker have stronger weapons and armour than their original counterparts in the show.

In fact, Brad also seems to have designed a go-between Fighter; the same size as the Striker but more similar, in shape, to the original Astrofighter.
The Hive Runner will be able to launch either version of Fighter and it will feature as a 'guest enemy', appearing at random throughout the game.

I received a kind email from softpedia.com, who added v0.83 to their site without me even submitting it, which was great of them.
I dunno how they found out about it as I only uploaded it at the weekend.

They gave it an awesome write-up and took some really good screenshots:

X-Bomber v0.83b on Softpedia | X-Bomber Softpedia Screenshots

I finished the Space Environment Pack that makes space missions more visually impressive by generating planets, asteroids, nebulas, galaxies and suns at random. I lifted the textures from filterforge.com and messed about with them in Photoshop. The game scales, rotates and skews the textures randomly to maximise variety and re-playability

Later, the system will generate planets in our solar system for a new, planned mission, involving escorting freighters through the Asteroid Belt to Pluto Base similar to Star Fleet Ep.4.

The system runs at full intensity in Missions 1-2 and 4-6 and at half-density in Missions 7, 10, 12-14

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Disclaimer

The software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties off merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.